As future high speed computing technologies find a need to transfer large amounts of data from point to point between electronic components, technologies will have to adapt in order to satisfy this requirement. The common solution today is to carry inter-circuit and intra-circuit signals via traditional electrical conductors. As processing speeds increase, however, the skin effect of high frequency signals can create a host of problems including high resistance, large power consumption, and limited signal transmission distance making traditional electrical transmissions unusable.
In recent years, increased attention has been focused on optical interconnects as a means to solve the problems encountered with traditional electrical connections. Optical transmitters convert electrical data signals into optical signals which may be carried over optical fiber to an end point where an optical receiver converts the optical signal back to electrical impulses. These optical transmitters and receivers are usually found packaged as a complete optical assembly comprising a transmitting optical subassembly or TOSA, and in the case of an optical receiver, the optical assembly comprises a receiving optical subassembly, or ROSA. Using a typical TOSA as an example, the subassembly acts as an interface between the electrical data communication medium and the optical data communication medium. The TOSA occupies the physical space between the optoelectronic circuitry and the optical fiber. It provides not only the physical structure to couple the optical output signal of the transmitter to an optical fiber, but also acts to align and focus the optical signal on the end of a fiber such that the light signal enters the fiber and is transmitted to a remote location where it is then converted back to an electronic signal.
While optical connections quickly help to eliminate any problems associated with high speed communications, they have always been associated with a high cost of implementation. In fact, in an effort to help advance the relevant Art in the field, intense research has been underway in the field of silicon photonics which uses silicon as a substrate to generate, modulate, and transmit optical signals using low cost and easily produced components. However, until now there has not been an adequate low cost and small form-factor optical interconnect solution.